Purists are worried that the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake has lost the soul of the original: "It's got big 'Nintendo, hire this man!' energy"

We've gotten our first look at in-game footage from the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake - or Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, if you prefer - but while the game looks like a gorgeous modernization, some purists feel that it's losing something from the original.

"It's strange. This looks really good and weirdly off at the same time," Reddit user HammeredWharf writes. "It's like uncanny valley, but for nature. I can't even pinpoint what bothers me here. Maybe it's that some areas look naturally dirty, while others are strangely gamey and pristine? I don't know."

Others are very much able to pinpoint their complaints, however. "I think this is pretty much what we all expected; graphical upgrade but the art direction looks pretty sterile compared to the original," Dinocologist writes. "The body has been upgraded but they forgot the soul."

"This tends to be my greatest issue with so many remakes," as Jess Howard writes on Twitter. "The emphasis on graphical fidelity over retaining the original title’s art design and overall aesthetic just ain’t it for me. I’d rather things be interesting than 'beautiful.'" 

You remember those fanmade Unreal Engine reimaginings of games like Mario and Sonic? They're visually impressive at first glance, sure, often accompanied by cries of "Nintendo, hire this man!" in the comments sections. But it never takes long to realize that those sorts of remakes lose the beauty of the original art direction, and these days the sentiment is very much a meme.

With this new Snake Eater remake footage, observers like biggestscrub are noting that "It's got big 'Nintendo, hire this man!' energy."  And that's a reference that keeps coming up, again and again. I can kinda see it. The new visuals do look very impressive, but they also look a bit flat - the original certainly had more color and contrast, though you could argue that simply was a necessity to keep the game readable given the PS2's low-resolution display.

In fairness, the remake footage we've seen so far just features shots of Snake and generic guards moving through some fairly grounded environments. We don't know what the game's more outlandish elements - ranging from hovering rocket platforms to the guy who shoots bees out of his mouth - will come off in the new visual style, and the contrast between the grounded look and those ridiculous bits might make the personality pop all the more.

Of course, it's impossible to pass final judgment until the remake actually launches, and any modern Metal Gear project is going to get a serious side-eye from fans. Longtime series lead Hideo Kojima parted with publisher Konami under messy circumstances nearly a decade ago, and from Metal Gear Survive to the recent Master Collection, the publisher's efforts to revive the series in the post-Kojima era haven't been going down very well. 

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